Give or Take
by Scout Girl
Summary: Ianto Jones sat at the reception, thinking. How had he got himself into this mess? His team mates had killed his girlfriend. And he fancied his boss. It couldn’t get much worse' Oh yes Ianto it could, but it could also get whole lot better...
1. Pizza and Kisses

Disclaimer: I do not own TORCHWOOD, quite obvious really but then it needs to be said.

Spoilers: Set between Greeks Baring Gifts and They Keep Killing Suzie. Not that it really matters all that matters is after Cyberwoman.

Dedication: Hobbit985 who BETAed this and had in-depth discussions via e-mail about

TORCHWOOD, Doctor Who and other vitally important subjects with me. Thank you.

* * *

Give or Take

Ianto Jones sat at the desk at the reception of Torchwood three, thinking. How had he got himself into this mess? It had been so simple before the war, before the Cybermen and the Daleks. He had worked there, he had Lisa and then wham, everything happened at once. His girlfriend had been turned into a robot and he had no job.

So he had moved back to Wales with Lisa and had looked after her as well as he could and then well… At least it seemed the team had forgiven him. Mostly. Gwen and Tosh were saying silent, thankfully, he hadn't wanted to talk about it, not to them, they had shot her but never known her. Owen, he had expected nothing less than sneers, scowls and scorn from him and he hadn't be wrong but luckily the other's told him to pack it in. And Jack... Ianto shook his head. How had his life got into this mess?

His team mates had killed his girlfriend. He had no one to talk about it. And he fancied his boss. It couldn't get much worse.

He was pulled from his thoughts by a knock on the door.

"Torchwood?" The young boy said as he opened the door. It was the pizza boy.

"Yes" Ianto answered. He still didn't know why they ordered pizza to Torchwood.

The boy walked forward and put the pizzas on the desk.

"Pizza sir"

Ianto nodded and smiled. He wasn't often called _Sir_ and he liked it. He reached into the drawer that contained the money and handed over the correct amount before the boy even asked. He didn't need to, Ianto knew it automatically, they had been ordering the same types and amounts of pizzas at least once a week for so long that the only thing that changed was the person who delivered it.

Ianto nodded at the boy to go and as the pizza boy closed the door Ianto pressed one of the under-desk buttons and the door automatically locked. Ianto pressed the button next to the one he had just pushed and the door next to him opened. He picked up the five pizzas in and walked though.

Soon enough he was in the hub, looking around. Tosh was working on the alien hologram projector. Owen was searching on the internet for something. Gwen was typing something into her computer and Jack was examining his 'alien hand' wearing his 3-D glasses.

"Anyone want this pizza?" Ianto asked. It was amazing the reaction he got. Almost everyone dropped what they were doing and came over to him. The one person who didn't was Jack who was still looking at the hand.

"Sir?" Ianto asked nervously, he couldn't really look Jack in the eye, because…

"Oh, coming Ianto" With that Jack slipped the glasses off and tossed them lazily at the closest table to him. They missed. Jack shrugged and walked over to them.

Ianto put the pizzas down on the table he was standing next to. Everyone except Ianto dived into the pizza. Ianto carefully walked around the talking and eating team to where Jack had thrown the glasses, he picked them up and put them on the table. If he didn't do it now no one else would do it and there was no putting it off until later. And he couldn't spend that long in the company of the team anyway and especially he couldn't spend that long with Jack.

"Not joining us Ianto?" Jack asked, concerned about his friend. He seemed to be spending less time around the team again. After the Lisa episode that was expected but by now the team had forgiven him so Jack was wondering what was keeping the young Welshman away from the team.

"No Sir" Ianto said as he stood up, "Would anyone one like coffee first?"

There was a collective yes from everyone including Jack and as soon as the word was out of Jack's mouth Ianto had turned and left. Jack shook his head. He was going to have to have a word with the Welshman. He turned to the pizza and tucked in.

"Jack?" Gwen asked her mouth full of pizza, "At the Brecon Beacons you never did tell us who your last kiss was"

Tosh shuddered at the mention of the place but looked on eagerly.

"So?" Jack asked, but the rest of the team wouldn't let it go.

"Does it have to have been with a human?" Jack asked.

"Yes" Tosh replied.

"And a kiss as in I kissed them?"

"Yes Jack" Gwen happily bantered back at him.

"Well then" Jack smiled, "The last person that I kissed was…"

"If you're going to tell us then just do" Owen butted in.

"I'm getting to it; the last person I kissed was … Ianto"

At that moment a head stuck itself around the door and everyone excluding Jack stared at Ianto.

"Sorry coffee coming up" Ianto said, seemingly oblivious to the whole team's stares at him.

"But some people", he glared at Owen at this point, "never put their coffee mugs in the kitchen".

With that he walked across the hub to Owens desk and picked up his mug, walked back to the kitchen door. He walked in put the mug down in the sink and stuck his head out the side of the door again.

"Coffee won't be long". And then he closed the door.

He hadn't seen that Owen's, Gwen's and Toshiko's eyes had never left him since he walked in.

Together they turned from the kitchen door to Jack.

"What?" They all said in perfect unison.

"Ianto?"

"Tell me you are joking!"

"You…you…you…didn't, you didn't, you just didn't"

Jack listened to the onslaught of questions and statements.

"Yes Ianto, no I'm not joking, I did"

"But…why?"

"Kiss of life"

"Oh" said Gwen.

"When?" Asked Tosh clearly confused.

"When…the Hub powered down and he was knocked out"

The others looked at each other. Well that was when the Cyberwoman ran rampant on them and when discussing Ianto it was a touchy subject so no one mentioned it. Owen opened his mouth to say something but Gwen elbowed him so he closed his mouth again.

"So" Tosh started, "It was just a kiss of life?"

"Yes, but I did enjoy it"

"Jack!!!" Gwen said and thumped him playfully and soon the four of them were involved in a play fight. Owen joining in but doing little.

Ianto walked in at this point carrying the tray with the coffee on.

"You four, that pizza is going to go cold soon"

They looked up suddenly and Owen, Gwen and Tosh looked from Ianto to Jack and back again. Jack rolled his eyes at his team and sat back in his chair. Gwen, Tosh and Owen followed his example and Ianto handed around the coffee. He took the tray back to the kitchen and then as he walked back in put his hand to his ear and listened.

Ianto was the only person that left his earpiece in all the time and left it on. Tosh often left hers out so it wouldn't irritate her while she was working because the last thing she needed was to get a call while working. Gwen preferred to use her mobile phone rather than her earpiece so she often left it out while in the hub, she always picked it up when they went out though. Owen wore his for looks but didn't have it turned on all the time and Jack normally left it in but when relaxing at the hub had it turned off and relied on the computers and Ianto to tell him what was happening.

The others stopped talking and listened to the conversation happening via the earpiece.

"Yes, alright, we'll be there…" Still talking into his headset he walked over to his computer and put in the details that he had been given.

"Thank you" With that the conversation ended and Ianto turned back to the team, who were waiting for him to tell them what, was going on.

"We've got an alien sighting off St. Ifan road, no ship just the alien, not disguised as a human, general appearance a metre high, blue turquoise, three orange eyes with green pupils, no more information that that, Sir"

Jack had already got up and turned on his ear piece, Gwen and Tosh were by now putting on their coats and Owen just stood up and brushed down the lapels of his leather jacket.

Ianto reached over to get Jacks coat and gave it to him as he passed. He then sat down by his desk as the team filed past him to the SUV. He wouldn't go with them, he only navigated and that meant he was sitting next to Jack, this was really getting silly now, he couldn't even be in the same room as him for long periods of time. He really had to get over this, but he couldn't. Ianto sighed, got up, closed the door that the others had left open, watched them leave over the CCTV and started to clean up the hub.

* * *

Scout Girl

BETAed by Hobbit985


	2. Myfanwy and Skyn

Disclaimer: This is a (bad) poem that describes my relationship with Torchwood

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

I don't own Torchwood

So please do not sue 

Spoilers: Set between Greeks Baring Gifts and They Keep Killing Suzie.

Dedication: Hobbit985 who BETAEd this wonderfully and all my fantastic reviewers especially Mercury Bohemian

* * *

Give or Take

While Jack was driving the SUV to where Ianto had told them the alien was he was thinking about what type of alien it was. A metre high so not from Raxacoricofallapatorius, he loved that word but no not from there.

"Any ideas were our alien friend comes from?" Jack directed this question to the back of the SUV where Tosh and Gwen were busy typing into their computers.

"The first on the left" Owen said to Jack, and Gwen rolled her eyes. Owen had been put in charge of navigating, which was normally Ianto's job. No one knew why Ianto hadn't come with them. Usually Ianto sat next to Jack giving him the directions and telling them information that they needed to know but didn't have time to find out. This had now been put on Owens shoulders. Jack was going to have to talk to Ianto soon; things were getting difficult with him avoiding the team, it wasn't like he was arguing with them but just avoiding them, and avoiding Jack in particular.

"Jack", Toshiko said from the back of the SUV, "I've got something on the Torchwood files on an alien that meets the description but it doesn't say much only that the aliens can speak English to an extent because their planet has intercepted probes and the like and are either blue turquoise or pink purple depending on their sex, blue turquoise is male, oh and they apparently appear to be made of liquid but held solid, the description here is like jelly but more liquidated, sorry Jack but that's all the information there is the files been corrupted with a virus and has removed the information, I could hack into it but it would take time"

"Tosh" Owen interrupted, "No need for you to go all computer-genius on us. Next on the right then we're there"

Jack listened to the bickering while driving until he reached the spot where the alien had been reported.

* * *

Back at the Hub Ianto was clearing up. He had washed out the coffee mugs and out them all back in the correct places. Then he went over to the pizza boxes, one of them still had a quarter of the pizza left in it. Ianto looked up to where the pterodactyl, Myfanwy was sitting high above him. He walked towards Toshiko's desk where the protien sauce was kept and then with the sauce in hand walked back to the desk. Ianto splashed the source on what remained of the pizza and threw it into the air. Myfanwy swoped down and ate it in one bite. Ianto shuddered and thought of Myfanwy attacking Lisa. In a fit of rage he threw the bottle of source at the pterodactyl. It ducked it easially and it returned to its perch; and the door of Myfanwy's home locked as the pterodactyl slept. The sauce landed on the floor of the hub by the alien hand of Jack's, exploding over everything and Ianto sat down on the cold slightly wet floor and started to cry, his face in his hands. He thought about Lisa and what had happened to her. How his team mates had been the ones that killed her. How Jack had been the one to give the orders.

"Ianto?"

Ianto jumped at the sound of Jack's voice and hastily wiped his eyes. He raised his hand to his ear opening the connection.

"Yes…Sir," Ianto replied, trying and failing to keep the stammer out of his voice, he didn't need anyone, Jack least of all people, knowing that he was crying.

"We won't need the translation devise Ianto, our alien speaks English, to a point."

"O-Okay Sir."

"You alright Ianto? Well we'll be about half an hour."

"Okay S-sir."

With that Ianto sighed and went back to cleaning the Hub and started by collecting the pizza boxes that he had strewn during his fury.

* * *

"We're Torchwood," Tosh told the alien infront of her, "We deal with aliens, if you need to get home we can help or if you would like to talk we can help as well?"

Gwen was standing behind Tosh and Owen was behind her. Jack was behind the alien and you could see his legs though the turquiose pulsating mass of the jelly-like alien.

"Will sit?" The alien asked them and Tosh looked at Jack who nodded. Gwen noticed that both Jack and Owen had guns in their hands but she decided to ignore that. All four of them sat down on the grass with the alien in the centre. The alien was hovering about five centremeters from the ground.

"What is your species?" Jack asked the alien. The alien waited a moment before answering.

"Ahhh…perplexity, I am one of the Adfecti, from the planet Kelatea."

"But, how did you get here? The rift? Records say that you fell from the sky," Tosh asked eagerly but confused at the same time. Again the alien waited for a moment before it answered.

"Bewilderment…so good, I fell down very far, down. To here…to… Car-diff."

Tosh nodded but frowned at the same time.

"Disbelief, how bitter," The Adfectus said  
"What?" Gwen asked,

"Incomprehension, pleasant," That was all the alien said.

"Will you come with us?" Jack asked and nodded to Owen to keep his gun trained on the Adfectus if it refused. The alien nodded and Jack continued, "Oh and will you tell us what you're name is so we can call you that rather than the Adfectus"

"Saccharine…Name being Skyn."

* * *

Back at the hub Ianto was still clearing up when the team entered the hub with Skyn between them. Ianto stood up hastily as they walked in; wiping his hands on the cloth he was using to clean up the protein source that had splattered everywhere. The alien seemed perfectly at ease as it was being led to the cells.

The team walked passed him and he nodded at them. They were back; nothing went wrong, perfectly calm. Unlike things had been at the Hub, as soon as Ianto had started to clean up the protein sauce Myfanwy had desided that he wanted to come out. Ianto had dashed deperatly to the computer which had been assigned to him and locked the door to Myfanwy's perch. Since then there had been a racket with Myfanwy kicking the door to get free. Ianto had been trying to work in that noise and he now had an headache, he wouldn't show it of course as he had work to do, coffee to brew etc. The protien sauce was almost totally cleaned up by the time Owen, Gwen, Jack and Tosh had got back from the cells and the only thing left for Ianto to do was to make sure that the casing of Jack's 'hand' was clean and to pick up the bottle.

The team had settled down by now and had all returned to their work stations or talking animatedly to one and other. Tosh was updating the Torchwood files with information about the Adfecti. Owen was looking at the scans of Skyn that he had done down in the cells and he kept using the end of his pen to trace certain places on the aliens physiology and Gwen and Jack were talking to each other about the alien.

'Skyn' Gwen kept interrupting when Jack called it 'The alien'.

Ianto stole one last look at Jack then went back to his cleaning, he sighed. Life wasn't fair to him, it really wasn't. He turned to the Hand Container and started to polish it, he knew that Jack didn't like people touching it but then, he didn't like it dirty, so he continued to work.

Jack stopped his conversation with Gwen. Ianto was alone by the hand and Jack hated people touching that hand, it was…personal, but with Ianto he didn't mind, the Welshman was so careful with everything he did, from talking to people to handling dangerous alien artefacts that Jack trusted him. At least if he was cleaning it was unlikely that he would run off. It seemed Ianto lived to make the hub a tidier more efficient place to work. Jack sometimes wondered weather Ianto got any sleep at all, if he just arrived at 5 in the morning and sometimes didn't leave until past 11. Well now, Jack decided would be the perfect time to have a talk to Ianto about how he was acting to the team, it was doing no good cutting himself off from them. Jack still felt guilty that he knew nothing about Ianto except the fact he had worked at Torchwood 1 before the fall. Jack took a step forward towards Ianto and saw the empty broken plastic bottle on the floor. He looked at it for a minute and the turned to Tosh, on who's desk it had been and then at Ianto.

"Ianto!" Ianto flinched as Jack spoke and turned around quickly,

"Yes Sir?" Ianto asked putting the polishing cloth into his suit pocket as he spoke.

"What," Jack said "Is this?"

He pointed at the broken fragments of the bottle.

Ianto hurried forward and saw what he was pointing at, he blushed, he'd forgotten to clear that up before the team had turned up, he had been to engrossed in his thoughts, of Lisa, of Torchwood and of … he gulped.

"Well, Sir…I…" Ianto began and stopped the thoughts of throwing the protein sauce flask at the pterodactyl flooding his mind. It now seemed such a stupid thing to have done. Ianto made some kind of movement with his hands and tried to find the words to finish his sentence.

"…it broke". Ianto looked down at the floor; he couldn't bring himself look Jack in the eye. Nothing would ever be simple anymore would it?

"Ianto…" Jack said and Ianto looked up at him nervously, Jack saw the look in his eyes, the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, he could see Ianto was frightened, of what he didn't know but that look was enough to tell Jack not to ask him about how he was acting.

"Want to take Janet for a walk?" Jack said with a smile

"What, Sir?" Ianto asked surprised.

"Janet, you can't have forgotten her Ianto, oh she is beautiful, brown skin, big teeth, blue jumpsuit, ringing any bells?" Jack said with a smile and a wink.

Ianto nodded slowly, Jack was like this at times. Naming the Weevil Janet had been one of his madder moments.

"Where should I take um… her Sir?"

"Cell next to our new friend, the Adfecti."

"Okay Sir."

"They can swap fashion tips, now I've always liked a suit but then each to his own Ianto."

"Of course Sir."

Ianto turned around to head to the basement to collect Janet when Jack spoke.

"Speaking of suits, you look good in them Ianto."

Ianto smiled to himself, glad the rest of the team were to busy to notice. It was good when Jack did notice him, but he knew that it was Jack's nature to flirt and it didn't really mean anything. Still Ianto was pleased that he had caught Jack's eye, for a moment at least.

"That's harassment, Sir."

"I know."

With that Ianto could sense Jack walking away from him and he shook his head sighing. What was he going to do about Jack?

* * *

Scout Girl

BETAed by Hobbit985


	3. CCTV and Memories

Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or Doctor Who even though Doctor Who doesn't really matter in this story.

Spoilers: Set between Greeks Baring Gifts and They Keep Killing Suzie.

Dedication: Lolly and Em, two great friends.

A/N: Okay, sorry about the wait. I'm trying to get up to date with my stories all of them which will take a while but I'm afraid that Dancing With The Past is up to Let'sDoTheTimeWarpAgain when we finish but apart from that I'm trying to keep on top of them.

Skyn hovered above the grimy floor of the cell thinking. He knew that he would not be disturbed, the people, Torchwood they called themselves, were busy. He knew that, he could taste it. Well these humans said that they could help him get home, that they could let him talk to people in charge. He didn't need help to go home; he didn't want to talk either. He would have left as soon as he arrived if it hadn't been for the human race. They were so much and he was so hungry.

Ianto walked down the third floor cells, to collect 'Janet'. He had picked up the Weevil spray from Gwen's desk and had shaken it to check that there was the liquid in it. He might think that the Weevil spray wasn't working against them properly; but he would rather have it with him all the same. An angry Weevil wouldn't make his life any easier. As he was approaching the lift Gwen had looked up from her work station.

"Hey, Ianto, where you going?"

Ianto had looked up at her and nodded slightly.

"Jack wants the Weevil moved, next to the Adfecti"

"Why on earth does he want that?" She rubbed her face,

"It's not going to help Skyn is it?"

Ianto shook his head as if agreeing with her totally.

"Skyn is..?" He started, confused, even though it didn't show on his face.

"Skyn is the name of the Adfecti! Aliens have names too! I wish Jack remembered that."

She sighed and turned back to her desk.

And Ianto had sighed and then in his head thought of one particular alien name that sprung to mind. Janet. He'd smiled and entered the lift. Soon he was at the third floor and could see at once why Jack wanted Janet moved. The glass had started to break because of her constant tantrums. To make sure he was totally safe he squirted some of the spray though the holes in the glass and then opened up the cell.

Janet hissed at him angrily and Ianto took a step back, shaken. He was used to the different aliens that were brought into the hub but for a moment the expression on Janet's face was the same as his cannibal captors at the Brecon Beacons. That was one of the few times that Ianto had feared for his life and even though he wasn't killed he still had the bruises and scars to show that he had almost had. He quivered just thinking about it. Ianto bent down to pick up the Weevil spray that he hadn't known he had dropped and coyly approached Janet. He hoped that there was no-one watching the CCTV because as he made his way to the more secure cells he was visibly shaking and had to keep looking over his shoulder. He tried to shake himself out of how he was feeling but he couldn't manage it so he contented himself to holding the back of Janet's jumpsuit tighter than he normally would have done.

Ianto only realised that he was on the level he was meant to drop Janet off when he heard a voice.

"Yes"

Ianto jumped and turned around; he was face to face with Skyn. He turned away from the alien and with an unsteady hand he opened on of the cells and pushed Janet in.

"You…oh…fear, wonderful"

Ianto stopped and closed the door on Janet and turned back to face Skyn.

"I'm not afraid" Ianto said, not sure if he believed himself at all. He could still hear the cannibals coming from behind him and could still feel the meat clever at his throat. The alien shook his head and looked at Ianto quizzically.

"You…"

The rest of the sentence was cut off by one of Janet's squeals. Skyn shuddered and closed all three of his eyes and then slowly he opened his middle eye.

"You, move, them?" Skyn pointed to his head and then seemingly searched for the right word.

"Headache"

Ianto nodded as if he was on auto-pilot and walked out the corridor. As soon as he was out of the corridor he closed his eyes and breathed in and out slowly. He had never been one for field work. He was the archivist, well he was more than that now because Torchwood Three was a small outpost thus without a large amount of staff, so Ianto had stepped in, never expecting field work, never expecting that his team would find out his secret in the basement. They had both happened and both had the worst outcomes Ianto could have thought of.

Lisa had died; Ianto knew she was dead when her voice changed to the cybernetic intonation that he associated with that day in London where his world fell down around him. When he thought about she had been dead since she had been taken by the Cybermen but he couldn't accept it. Not until she stopped sounding like his Lisa but he knew most of all that it was when Lisa had tried to kill him.

Ianto could feel the tears on his cheeks and sincerely hoped that no one was watching the CCTV. He could delete it all anyway, given a few minuets. It hadn't been Lisa that had tried to kill him, she had died long before that, he had to tell himself that but more importantly he had to believe it.

He took a deep breath started to head up the stairs. The door clanged behind him and he jumped. Logically he knew that the villagers weren't behind him but that didn't stop his heard beating erratically and a sweat breaking out on his forehead. He didn't know how the others coped, Gwen he could relate to because she was new, even then, he reminded himself she had been with the police so she had seen terrible things in the world. He could relate to Gwen though, but Tosh, Owen and Jack were complete mysteries to him. They could die at anytime, risking their lives for the world, they gave everything they had for it but no one cared for them, no one helped them.

Ianto knew that he should go to Gwen or Jack or somebody and tell them that Skyn was unhappy with Janet next to them but he found that he couldn't stop walking, as if when he stopped the cannibals would reach him. So he continued up to the reception. He sat down with his head in his hands. He felt the tears fall against his hands, too much had happened in such a short space of time. He looked around the reception area then stood up and headed to the door. He didn't expect anyone to notice that he was gone; no one had even noticed he hadn't come up from the cells.

He turned the sign on the door to 'Closed' with a sigh. The tears were still falling down his cheeks but not so fast and they had less urgency than before, he was just so confused. What with Lisa, and… and Jack his life was getting no where. He pressed the palm of his hands into his eyes for a moment and then turned towards the bay. He just wanted to clear his head. He'd only be 10 minuets, no one would miss him.

'Like they would anyway', he thought and started to walk away.

Jack watched Ianto repeatedly throwing the protein sauce at the pterodactyl, over and over again Jack watched Ianto break down and cry on the floor of the hub, again and again he watched Ianto pick himself up and start to work, Jack saw Ianto jump in fright at the banging of a door over and over again and the sorry scene of Ianto crying on his own in the depths of the hub played it's self out time and again on Jack computer screen.

Then Jack's computer bleeped telling him someone had left the Hub. He shook his head; still worrying about Ianto; and entered in the information so that the computer could bring up the CCTV footage of the Hub's reception entrance.

Jack recognised the suit. Ianto.

He grabbed his coat and sped out his office to the reception, threw open the door and raced after the retreating back of Ianto Jones.

Scout Girl

BETAed by Hobbit985


End file.
